The Lost Ambassador eBook

“Can’t you?” Ralph answered.
“I have been thinking over what you told me,
Austen, and I fancy, perhaps, I can give you a hint.
Do you know that at the present moment the two most
powerful battleships in the world are being built
on the Tyne for Brazil?”

“I know that,” I admitted. “Go
on.”

“What does Brazil want with battleships of that
class?” my brother continued. “Obviously
they would be useless to her. She could not man
them. It would be a severe strain to her finances
even to put them into commission. I am of opinion
that the order to build them was given as a speculation
by a few shrewd men in the Brazilian Government who
foresaw unsettled times ahead, and they are there to
be disposed of to the highest European or Asiatic
bidder!”

I saw Ralph’s point at once.

“By Jove!” I exclaimed. “You
think, then, that Delora is over here to arrange for
the sale of them to some other Government—­presumably
to China?”

“Why not?” Ralph asked. “It
is feasible, and to some extent it explains a good
deal of what has seemed to you so mysterious.
There could be no more possible purchaser of the battleships
than China, except, perhaps, Russia, and transactions
of that sort are always attended with a large amount
of secrecy.”

“Of course, if you are on the right track,”
I admitted, “everything is explained, and Delora
is justified. There is just one thing which I
do not understand, and that is why he should have
associated with such a pack of thieves as the people
at the Cafe des Deux Epingles, and why he should be
forced to make an ally—­I had almost said
accomplice—­of Louis.”

“Well, you can’t understand everything
all at once,” Ralph answered. “At
the same time, if I were you, I would try and see if
the hint I have given you fits in with the rest of
the puzzle.”

“I’ll get the truth out of Delora to-night!”
I declared. “And, Ralph!”

“Well?” he asked.

“I have asked Felicia Delora to marry me,”
I continued.

Ralph looked at me for a moment, doubtfully.

“Wouldn’t it have been better to have
had this matter cleared up first?” he asked.

“I couldn’t help it,” I answered.
“The child is all alone, and it makes my heart
ache to think what a poor little pawn she is in the
game these men are playing. I’d like to
take her right away from it, Ralph, but she is staunch.
She fancies that she is indebted to her uncle, and
she will obey his orders.”

“You can’t think any the worse of her
for that,” Ralph remarked.

“I don’t,” I answered, sighing,
“but it makes the position a little difficult.”

“Come and see me to-morrow morning,” Ralph
said, “and tell me exactly what passes between
you and Delora. We must cable Dicky some time
soon.”